Lose Your Soul
by HerMajestyElsa
Summary: The Doctor comes to help a girl in America in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.
1. Chapter 1

I barricaded the doors quicker than I anticipated. I was the only one in my group left; all of the others had died and joined the walking dead. I took shelter in a Bass Pro Shop Outdoor World place; it even had its own restaurant. I found some stale bread and water, took that with me upstairs to consume, and then I sat among the clothes and wept. I had been running alone for six months now, but I was the last runner in the southeast region of the country. I didn't have a name anymore; I was Runner. If anybody were to ask me what my name was, that was the answer. There are Runners, there are Medics, there are Journalists – that's what I was hoping to be after college until my university became overrun – and there are zombies. The Runners, such as me, usually gather supplies for Medics and send reports to Journalists as soon as we can access a computer. The Journalists act as messengers: they're the Hermes of the country now. They send information via radio depending on what part of the country you're from. I'm the only Runner in the southeast region now, so our radio transmissions are limited but they are looking for new potential runners. Medics are those who keep supplies of medicine, as their name suggests, and do their best to keep us Runners healthy.

I was able to hack the computer-type registers at Bass Pro Shop – we were trained by the Journalists on how to do this – and was able to send a report from there after I was weeping. I was safe here at Bass, but there were loads of zombie herds in the area. No one knows for sure how the zombie infection began, but once it started to spread it spread quickly. I'm sure the Medics knew but didn't want to come out and say anything, probably to try to keep the panic at a minimum but it's a little late for that.

When my group was alive, there were four of us. There are a few different kinds of us Runners. There are Sprinters, who just run for their life and make it; Archers, who are good with a bow and arrow or crossbow; Gunners, who can shoot a gun, most likely while running and still have great aim; and Campers, who run until they find a great hiding spot. I started off as a Sprinter, but I met others from each kind of category and we formed an alliance and helped each other and taught each other. Now, I'm a hybrid of all four categories. I have no other choice. It's the only way to survive.

Our Camper used to tell stories of how a friend of hers told her about a man called The Doctor, and how she experienced him when she lived in London. She said he would help us and save the day and save humanity. This Doctor never came but it was a good thing to hold on to hope to, but I gave up about four months into the apocalypse. I met her within the first few weeks. I was the Sprinter and she was a Camper so she would try to keep up with me – which she was pretty good at – and we would stop when she found a hiding place. She was perfect at finding safe havens, but one day we all found a place and she sacrificed herself to make sure we all got in alright. Once the zombies were done with her and left, our Gunner stepped out and shot her in the head. She was the first one gone in our group and I cried the whole night.

Our Archer and I had a relationship of sorts, which kind of blossomed after that night. He was there for me after our Camper died, whereas the Gunner just sort of patrolled the place; he was relatively heartless. Our Archer would hold me during sleep shifts to make sure I was okay and it helped me cope. When our Gunner died it was just him and I and things went really smoothly for about two weeks. Then they got him when he couldn't run fast enough and I knew I had to leave him behind. And then I was alone. I was alone and I just prayed that this Doctor would come to help.

A week later, while I was still at Bass, I heard a strange noise coming from downstairs. I prepared my gun thinking it would be the zombies but I saw a blue police box form right in front of my eyes by the staircase. I still kept my gun ready, and a tall man that was dressed rather nicely stepped out very casually. I saw that he wasn't a zombie or in the process of turning, so I lowered my gun. Based off of the legend, this had to be him. This had to be The Doctor.

With heavy breaths, I sighed in relief and closed my eyes for a moment. I didn't want to start crying again. I had to be strong. I was the last Runner in Region IV which consisted of eight states, and based off of leaked reports there weren't very many other Runners in the other nine regions. Rumor has it that Region X doesn't have any Runners anymore and Regions VI and IX only have one left as well.

The man came upstairs and found me trying to hold myself together. "Hello?" he began; like my friend said, he had a British accent, and that's when I knew it was him. My expression went to what must have been wonder to anger.

"Doctor?"

"You… you know me?" he asked, confused.

"Where the hell have you been?!" I screamed. It wasn't a question; it was a command.

"Well, I just took a trip to Italy, met the nicest family that had quite a nasty alien problem-"

"I don't give a shit about your alien problems!" I snapped. I was choking back the tears at this point. "I waited for you! I believed in you! She… _she_ believed in you and its too late! I believed in you! For _her_! For all of us! And now she's gone!" That's when the tears began streaming, the utter loneliness kicking in. "They're all gone."

"Hey, hey, hey," The Doctor rushed over, holding me to calm me down. "Who believed in me?"

"Our Camper. She sacrificed herself for us. She always talked about you, you know. She said she lived in London for a few years and you always saved the day when shit got weird. Our Gunner killed her for good before she could become one of them."

"One of whom?" The Doctor asked. He genuinely looked confused when I looked up to him, making eye contact.

"Look for yourself." I pulled myself away from his grasp and led him to a window, in which he saw an absolute wasteland. The streets were desolate; the rest of the shopping plaza looked like it was abandoned, and save for me it was. Out in the distance, by a nearby restaurant, was a single zombie roaming by himself. I grabbed my binoculars to get a closer look at him; he looked like our Archer. When the zombies got him, I didn't have it in me to kill him. In my bag I was able to carry a bottle of water, some nonperishable snacks and weapons. "Can you cut a small hole in the glass?" I asked The Doctor. He nodded, took out a strange device and did such. I pulled a small sniper rifle out of my bag, attached the silencer, and The Doctor stared in awe as I prepared myself. I hesitated for a longer time than I would have liked to, but it had to be done. Once the cross hair was focused on his head, I pulled the trigger.

"Who was that?"

"Our Archer," I answered gravely. "Someone I loved."

"And where are we?" The Doctor asked, almost bemusedly.

"Region IV of the United States," I looked to him. "More specifically, Florida. Welcome to 2013, maybe the Mayans weren't so wrong after all."

"Is this the only region with a zombie problem?" he asked. I laughed sadly.

"Nope. Even the president himself got bit. I feel bad for the poor bastard who had to shoot him in the head when he saw Mr. President the zombie. Must be traumatizing. That's when the government collapsed, when the president turned. It's the whole country, Doctor. This country is run on Medics, Journalists and Runners like me."

"And what's your name?" he asked.

"Runner. That's what my instructions were. When anyone asks you, you don't have a name. Identity doesn't matter in the zombie apocalypse. You're either a Medic, a Journalist, a Runner or a zombie. I am Runner."

"Runner what?"

"Just Runner. Kind of how you're just The Doctor. I'm the last Runner in Region IV."

"Well then, Runner. I'm The Doctor. Looks like you all could use my help."

I smiled at him. "I think we could."


	2. Chapter 2

"So can you show me around?" The Doctor asked. I laughed.

"Please tell me that was a joke. We are not leaving this building until we have to."

"Sorry. Can I at least get some history?"

I shrugged. "I guess. I am – or, was, I guess – a journalism major at the university down the road here. Our basketball team was getting some hardcore national attention and I was pretty popular on campus and in my sorority. Now they're all dead."

It was true. I continued to tell The Doctor everything. Our school was perfect: beaches, national attention for basketball, I was popular in my sorority, my grades rocked and my professors were awesome, I had a great retail job and I was very likely to get a news reporter job in the area since we have a lot of amazing news stations around here. But now, it's gone. It all started at a Sigma Chi party at the frat house. I was there with a few sisters and the basketball team – including my friend with benefits whom I was getting annoyed with (relationships, ugh) – when it happened. We thought that one of the Sigma Chi brothers was just really wasted to the point of being sick, but we realized that his sluggishness and his glazed over eyes were past being drunk. His big brother in the fraternity went to smack him out of it and then got the bite. Thinking it was just a drunk thing, his big ended up hooking up with some girl in another sorority and gave her a shit ton of hickeys. One of them even ended up breaking the skin. Next thing we all knew, those three were in the hospital and biting other patients. Those patients wouldn't show symptoms until a week after being bitten, but once the bite was given it was too late. Symptoms or no symptoms, you were still a zombie. How no one noticed that a bunch of people who were dead were walking around biting people for a week without showing signs of being the walking dead is unknown but it still scares the shit out of you. Over time the time for showing symptoms increased to two seconds to forty-eight hours depending on a person's height, weight, and sex. The basketball team was away at a basketball game for the NCAA tournament when it broke out here so I've always remained hopeful yet doubtful that they've at least managed to be okay. I had heard of a few of the teammates getting bitten but I tried to not let it damper my hopes, mostly because I didn't really want to be the last person in the country. As far as we knew, the zombie outbreak was currently only in America.

The only other people in my region were a few Medics, the closest being about twenty minutes north of here, and the reporters scattered. Some were in Georgia, some about two hours north of here, and one on the east coast. That's what the latest report said anyways. And then there was me. We used to have numbers, but now they just refer to me as Runner.

"Can I ask you something?" The Doctor asked. I simply nodded. "What is the date?"

"All I know is that it's spring of 2013," I shrugged. "I don't know the exact date. I don't like to know, it makes time seem longer. All I know is I'll have to move soon, the restaurant only has so much food."

"Probably sooner than you think," The Doctor's attention averted to out the window. I followed his focus and stood to approach the window. We were on the second floor, and I saw the last thing I had wanted to see or expected. Someone must have turned behind the wheel of a car because a rogue car swerved throughout the parking lot from out of nowhere and managed to crash into the glass of the store. They now had an opening. I picked up my bag and my crossbow and looked to The Doctor at the same time as he looked to me. "Run," he breathed.


	3. Chapter 3

The car was smoking so hopefully the car – and, consequently, the zombie – would set fire. To avoid the zombie, we exited through the restaurant, not the shop. The Doctor was following me, managing to keep up with my pace but was lost. "Where are we going?!" he asked.

"My sorority house," I answered. The thought of our beautiful home raided by zombies broke my heart. So many memories were made in that house and the idea of my bed being occupied by the undead was heartbreaking. I remember the last time I saw my little and my big. It was a few nights after the Sigma Chi party; we had a family dinner and all just hung out in my room watching movies, painting each other's nails and gossiping about everything. We all just bonded together and god, I miss them dearly. I never had any real sisters, or a big family for that matter, so my sorority sisters were my family. Especially my big and little… we were the perfect little sorority family.

We had to fight a few zombies along the way. I guess I should say I had to fight a few zombies along the way as The Doctor pretty much just stood there and watched helplessly. He examined me shooting them, all in the head, to make sure they were truly dead. He observed their almost translucent skin, their veins void of any color yet still visible through their pale, pale skin. Their sluggish movements, sharp sudden reflexes or head rolls. He noted that all of my guns had silencers on them, and I used my crossbow when I could instead. I couldn't use a throwing knife for shit, so I just opted out of those. The Doctor managed to keep up to my speed, falling only slightly behind. He probably spent his whole life in time and space running. Only this time, he was running down a paved street with no cars and empty buildings and palm trees and traffic lights stuck on the same color, all stuck on red.

I took a sharp left to run down Frat Row. I slowed as we reached my sorority house, stopping on the sidewalk in front of the lawn and staircase up to the porch. Our letters, bold and proud over the door, seemed ancient. The whole house seemed ancient. The door was slightly ajar, a window was broken, and there was only one light on upstairs. My fingers made their way to my lavaliere subconsciously as one of the songs ran through my head. The last few years I had spent with these amazing women – and especially this past year as their Recruitment Chair - flashed before my eyes. I must have been crying, because The Doctor's thumb stroked under my eye. "You okay, Runner?" I nodded, but I knew I wasn't. I was so far from okay, but I had to be.

"Yeah," I took a deep breath. "Let's go inside. There might be zombies."

"You're not okay, Runner-"

"God damn it, Doctor, I know I'm not!" I held the tears back. "Can we please just get this over with?" The Doctor sighed and nodded, carefully entering the house with me. I had hoped and prayed to God that there wouldn't be a single zombie inside, at least none that even remotely resembled any of my sisters. Luckily for me, the first floor was cleared, but we weren't sure about upstairs. We crept up them, The Doctor behind me keeping a close eye out for me. I had my pistol ready just in case there were zombies. We checked all the rooms, having to shoot a random frat guy stuck in a bedroom, and then we came to the last room and I halted dead in my tracks.

"Runner, you have got to move!" The Doctor whispered to me. Then he noticed I was crying again.

"Doctor, that's my little." It was her, alright. All I did was back up slowly. I couldn't kill her; that was my little. That was the girl that I met the second night of my first time being on the sorority side of recruitment, not potential new member. She was a PNM and she was so perfect, absolutely flawless. The second I met her I knew she'd be great for our sorority and I warned all the other girls that she was my little if she rushed our sorority, and she did. I remember making all those crafts for her during Big and Little Reveal Week and finally being able to tell her that it was me. I remember all those shots we've downed together, all those boys we've comforted each other over, us dancing on the bar together on my twentieth birthday, all those cute pictures we've taken with her on my back or of our family line with my big at philanthropy events and parties and socials and mixers and formals and semi-formals. I remember during a recruitment workshop, when we talked about positive experiences, she mentioned me and said I was the reason she rushed our sorority and I broke down in tears. I remember our family Disney World vacation taking pictures with our letters in front of Cinderella's castle and getting all of the princesses to throw what they know with us. I couldn't look at her like this. I refused.

"Runner," The Doctor placed a hand on my shoulder, "that girl is not your little sister. That isn't even a girl, okay? It's a mindless creature that is not human."

"I can't kill her, Doctor," I looked to The Doctor. "I can't do it." I held out my gun for him to take. He shook his head.

"I'm not a killer, Runner," he began walking down the steps, "but I suggest we find a different hideout if we wish to keep this zombie trapped up here." I gave The Doctor a nod, reaching forward for the door handle – the zombie of my little still a good distance into the room – and I shut the door, leaving her inside.

"There," I pursed my lips. "Problem solved." The Doctor and I stared at the door before giving the house one last zombie check. We carefully lifted the body of zombie frat star and tossed him out the back door. No noise came from the closed bedroom upstairs, and I liked it that way.


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor had used what he called his sonic screwdriver to lock the door my little was in as I changed clothes for the first time in months in my bedroom. He stepped outside before joining me on the couch where I made sure I had completely restocked. He could tell that I was still distraught.

"You know," he began to speak, "this isn't the first zombie apocalypse I've dealt with."

I looked up at him. "Really?" I found that hard to believe.

"Really," he nodded, making eye contact and smiling at me before his face fell. "But this one wasn't supposed to happen."

I scoffed. "And how do you know that?"

"It's stuck in time, don't get me wrong," he clarified, "but it was never supposed to happen. Someone messed up."

I rolled my eyes, letting out what sounded like a disbelieved laugh. "Well why don't you tell me something I don't know, Doctor?"

"That you're gonna be the one to stop them. I will make sure you live, Runner. I will." My eyes widened. I didn't know what to feel. "And can I just say I hate not knowing your name?"

My laugh this time was genuine. "Maybe one day," I winked.

"The thing is," The Doctor continued, "with these zombies, it's not even like it's an invasion from another species that came from some other planet. It's an actual disease. A human made disease. I've analyzed the zombies and taken a good look at that guy's anatomy. It's human. It's completely human and I don't know how…"

"So why me?" I asked. The Doctor made eye contact with me and I saw the whole universe in those eyes.

"I don't know," he breathed. "But you are important. So, so important. You look so familiar, I just can't put my finger on it."

"Familiar?" I questioned. "What, have you seen me during your time and space travels?" I sarcastically asked.

"Yes," The Doctor nodded. "Somewhere. I can't remember where, but I have."

We found ourselves with nothing to do. We were safe for now. As it got dark, since there was no power in the house I lit every candle I could find and set my flashlight up on the table. We found a few board games and played those. We couldn't play the piano, as noise would attract the zombies. We spoke in hushed whispers with loud laughs and told stories. He told me all about different adventures he had, with Daleks and Cybermen and Weeping Angels and Ood and Sontarans and Silurians and Slitheen and evil Santa Claus robots and I can't even remember what else. He told me of a woman named Donna Noble who saved his life once after showing up on his TARDIS in her wedding dress, of a girl who waited and a boy who waited even longer, and a girl named Rose Tyler that made him a better man so many years ago that is now with his meta-crisis which he had to explain to me; it had something to do with his hand. He told me of adventures with Charles Dickens and how Martha Jones was the muse for William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and how he took Van Gogh to a modern art gallery to see his own work. I told him stories of sorority recruitment and events we had and the families we helped through our philanthropy and how we used to always joke around about what would happen if we had a zombie apocalypse. I told him the story of why I wanted to be a news reporter and eventually anchor and it was because everything made me so curious. I told him about the last time I saw my mother and father and my two cats. I told him about the alliance I had formed with a bunch of strangers when the apocalypse began, about our training and how we learned to hack things and trigger different things into working even if there was no way in hell that they should work and how I was pretty bad at doing it. I thought he would find it all very boring after he told me everything about his life and his travels through time and space but he at least acted interested. I could see in his eyes that he was. I could tell that he was a very honest man.

Suddenly we heard rain and thunder. The Doctor jumped at the first sound of thunder, as if he wasn't expecting it, causing laughter that was too loud but covered by the sound of the rain. The rain didn't start slowly, but it poured. It was typical Florida in hurricane season rain. It must have been closer to summer. The lightning would light up the whole room. A telephone pole nearby was struck, knocking over and falling into another sorority's house down the road. The storms never lasted long, and this storm didn't either.

I slept for the first time in months. I remember watching the stars from the window with The Doctor and I must have fallen asleep on the couch we had moved, because when I woke up the next morning I was in my bed and The Doctor was cooking food; I could smell it. I went downstairs only to find that he had made us breakfast. "I got the power to work," he beamed, nodding his head in the direction of his sonic screwdriver. I was so happy that all I could do was laugh, running up to him to give him a massive hug. He was caught off guard but accepted and returned the embrace.

"You didn't have to do all this," I said into his shoulder.

"But I wanted to, and you deserve it," The Doctor smiled. "Besides last night when was the last time you truly slept?"

"Probably two months ago?" I shrugged. "I dunno."

"Exactly!" The Doctor laughed. "You need this. Now shut up and eat your breakfast," he winked. It was nice, the two of us sitting at the dining room table enjoying a nice breakfast late in the morning. In the middle of the zombie apocalypse, it felt like home.


	5. Chapter 5

We had our peaceful little home that we created out of my abandoned sorority house all to ourselves for about a week. We salvaged all the non-perishable foods we could get and with The Doctor's sonic screwdriver, we could set the lights to whatever brightness we wanted. At night we'd have them so dimly lit with candles so the zombies couldn't see us but we could see each other in our little home of hushed whispers and loud laughter. The Doctor and I truly did get along, and had some fantastic bonding time together. We would dance with our conversation acting as our music. We would move the couch at night by the largest window of the house in order to watch the stars and the rain, if it rained, and he would tell me about all these planets and places until I fell asleep with my head on his shoulder. The one I would dream about at night is one he told me about called Gallifrey. It was a nice change to get a good night's sleep for a few days in a row, considering I was more alert for zombies at night than I was in the day. But I felt safe with The Doctor. He was a gentle man that would not kill, but I could tell that deep inside of him, he was a warrior like me. Maybe this is what made us so close: the fact that we both knew struggle and pain and having to kill those you love in order to save them. He told me about the Time War one night, and that's when my theory was confirmed.

Eight days and eight nights into our stay, we could hear a herd coming. A large pack of zombies – a larger pack than I'd like to take on without my old crew – slowly came coming down the street. "Turn off everything," I whispered to The Doctor, who nodded and did such swiftly as I closed the curtains to every window in the house. "They'll be attracted to the light." I grabbed my gun with a silencer and stood guard, standing in silence in our little house with no more hushed whispers or loud laughter with The Doctor. It was the kind of silence where you can physically feel the anticipation. It was the kind of silence where you can hear someone's breathing, even if it's as light as a feather. It was the kind of silence where you could hear someone's heartbeat if you listened close enough, and I could have sworn I heard multiple coming from The Doctor when I stood beside him. "How fast is your heartbeat right now, Doctor?" I teased.

"It's not, there's just two," he whispered back. I shot him a look.

"How do you have two hearts?!"

"I'm not human, that's how! I'm Time Lord."

"I don't know why this surprises me, considering I met you after your spaceship that looks like a British police box magically appeared in a retail store. What else about you isn't human?"

"I regenerate whenever I'm close to dying," he explained. "New body and everything. Can get complicated when I run into former companions."

"When's the last time you regenerated?" I asked. He made it sound like it happened often.

"Remember when I told you about that whole they will knock four times thing?" I nodded. "After that. Right before the whole fish custard thing."

"How many times have you regenerated?"

"Eleven. I'm about 1,000 years old now, actually. Well, I think."

I looked The Doctor up and down, checking him out. "Well you're lookin' pretty hot for 1,000," I winked. "They say that it's the new twenty-five." He laughed, and at the same time we could heard something bang against the wall. It was followed by a strange moan.

"They're here?" he whispered even more silently than we were before. I nodded.

"If we have to fight them," I warned him, "don't let them bite you. Don't even let them scratch you. Try to avoid them touching you all together. We know for a fact that if you get bit, it'll spread, but we're not sure about other battle wounds."

"Right," The Doctor nodded, "will do."

"If you decide to fight, I would recommend using something as silent and long distance as possible," I advised. The Doctor found my bag and reached for something, just in case. "Hopefully, they pass through."

We waited for what felt like a lifetime. The one that bumped into the house was still circling it. I reached for my bag and put it on, just in case we'd have to run. More must have joined the zombie circling the house, because we could hear multiple dragging against the exterior walls.

"How are we going to get out of here?" I asked myself.

"Quickly," The Doctor answered. "I've got an idea."

"And what would that be?"

"We wait til we hear the ones circling hitting the back walls and we run out the front and go as fast as we can," he looked at me. I looked up to him.

"You're insane," was all I could find myself to say. "But I think it's the only thing to work."

As we heard them hit the back wall, The Doctor took a deep breath. "Geronimo!"

We ran for the front of the house and as quickly out the door as we could. I made sure to take the time to shut it in case we ever needed to come back. I checked where they were coming from before darting off. "To the right!" I called to The Doctor before sprinting off as quickly as I could. I ran much faster than I did when we were heading for Frat Row from Bass, and every now and then I'd look behind me to make sure The Doctor was keeping up. He was only a few paces behind me, which was probably a good thing considering he didn't know the area. We had some zombies chase us, but they weren't really running so much as slogging. We had plenty of time to get away. As a few caught up to The Doctor, I slowed down to turn around and shoot at them, allowing The Doctor to catch up to me. "Take a right at the end of the street and don't stop until you reach the stop sign. There we're cutting through campus to get the hell out of here. Don't stop!" I commanded as he ran past me. I shot down a few more before running the directions I told The Doctor to take and catching up to him.

"So this is what you've done for months? Just run away from these guys and shoot at them on occasion?" The Doctor asked.

"Unfortunately yes," I frowned. As soon as we reached campus, we ran straight through to cut through it in order to reach the other side of the town. We were at a bridge that would take us to apartment complexes, still close to everywhere we've been before. We had to shoot a few zombies along the way, but nothing that got too dangerous. Upon reaching the end of the bridge, we were able to slow down to a walking pace and let our heart rates return to normal.

"We need to find out how this whole thing started," The Doctor explained, "and then I can find out what they really are and we can end this whole thing."

I looked to my watch and checked the time. "It's almost time for a news report and I want to hear one. Come on, let's go find some place to listen," I urged. "We'll see if they have any clues."


	6. Chapter 6

The Doctor and I were easily able to break into an apartment complex with his sonic screwdriver being able to unlock all the doors. He also used it to hack onto the computer for me. I typed in the access codes for the radio and managed to pull up the radio show up in Sarasota. "You are brilliant," I beamed at The Doctor. He smiled and we turned our attention to the broadcast as I hooked up my microphone; we were encouraged to participate in the broadcast if we had any information.

"Looks like our Runner just checked in a few hours south of here, glad to see you're still alive and well, Runner!" Journalist 4 announced. I laughed.

"I'm still hangin' on, J4. We've had a few zombie herds but nothing too extreme. The largest I've seen was thirty."

"Thirty isn't too extreme?" The Doctor whispered to me. I shrugged.

"You have no idea how happy I am to hear that, Runner," Journalist 4 sighed. "For those of you tracking where to go, there are loads of zombies up by our neck of the woods here in Siesta Key."

"Looks like we won't be taking any more siestas up here," Journalist 3 joked. I grinned. "We've got about three herds that have been spotted around our area but they're all massive. The smallest one is seventy-five strong. We believe the largest to have anywhere between 150 and 210 zombies in it."

"Jesus Christ," I whispered to myself. I was thankful that the problem wasn't as bad down here.

"Well, look who finally decided to tune in after not hearing from them for two months now!" Journalist 4 exclaimed. "M7, how are you?"

"We're not too good," Medic 7 announced. "M8 and I had a safe-house together, as you know, and it just got raided. The raid began with them going right for M8, so I… I had to…" Medic 7 began sobbing. She was a sweet woman with a calm disposition, probably in her late thirties. She was only twenty minutes or so away from me.

"Oh shit, M7. I'm so sorry," Journalist 3, who was usually the joker that wasn't all that funny, became solemn.

"However, we do have some news. We heard rumors from another Medic that there were some abandoned files up at some lab by USC, but… it's not likely. If they were to have run tests with files, they would have made us aware before they all died out."

"I'll go investigate," I stated. "It's worth a shot. What's the name of the lab?"

"It operated out of a hospital in Colombia, South Carolina. I'll transfer over all the details," Medic 7 stated, sending over the files for us to look at on the screen. "Be safe, Runner. You know how dangerous long distance travel is."

"I've made it this far," I laughed.

"Anyone with you, Runner?" Journalist 4 asked.

"Actually, J4, yeah," I smiled as I looked to The Doctor. "Remember when R2 said that she believed in a man called The Doctor that would come help us?"

"You're kidding," Journalist 4 protested.

"He's sitting right next to me," I proclaimed. "Here, Doctor," I passed him the microphone, "say something."

"Um," The Doctor began, "hi everyone. Listen, M7, is there anything you can tell me about the cause of all this? If we can find out how it started, then we can end it. There has got to be a solution to this problem. I've dealt with a few zombie apocalypses and they've all had a solution. Something isn't adding up here."

There was a brief moment of silence. "Wow," Journalist 3 breathed.

"Doctor, we're just as… in the dark as you are," Medic 7 hesitantly stated. The Doctor and I noticed this hesitance and eyed in each other in acknowledgement of this. "Your best bet would be to check out that lab in the hospital with Runner, but the likelihood of anything having happened there is pretty low."

"You're lying to me," The Doctor immediately responded. "I can hear it in your voice. Do not lie to me, M7. We need to save your country here and maybe even the world if this doesn't stop."

"We've managed to keep it well contained, Doctor-"

"Actually, he's right," Journalist 4 interrupted Medic 7. "We got reports the other day from a Brazilian reporter that the infection is beginning to spread there. Just yesterday we got reports from a scientist in France, as well. It's on its way to the rest of the world, M7."

"So, M7," The Doctor continued, "I need you to be honest with me so Runner and I can go stop this. What happened in South Carolina?" We heard breathing from M7's end before she disconnected. We all sighed. "She knows what happened," The Doctor stated. "And she told us where to look. She's just in complete denial that someone could have messed up this badly."

"Runner," Journalist 4 addressed me. I took the microphone back.

"Yes, J4?"

"Whatever is in South Carolina… I know you can get it. I'm adding The Doctor to our file of those alive on record, so I know you're with him. If anything happens, just send me a report or get on the radio if you can. You know the protocol."

"Roger that, J4," I smiled. Journalist 4 and I had a special bond since we went to university together. He almost lost Journalist 3 – whom I was almost positive was his boyfriend, but they'd never tell – when their radio station got raided, but they made it out alive.

"I believe in you, Runner. Stay safe. And Doctor… thank you. Watch out for her."

"Signing off," I reported, and logged out of the call. I took out my phone to take a photo of the information that Medic 7 sent us. The Doctor then took my phone to his sonic screwdriver.

"Now you can actually use that thing anywhere in the universe," he grinned. "So how are we going to get to South Carolina?"

"There's a car dealership a few miles away," I recommended, "right by the highway. I suppose you can sonic screwdrive that, too?"

"I can sure try," The Doctor smirked. We made our way to the car dealership and The Doctor unlocked the fastest car he could find for me with his sonic screwdriver.

"Can you use it to start the car, too?" I asked. He nodded and got in the driver's seat so he could operate it. "Do you know how to drive?" I asked.

"I'm a thousand years old; I think I can operate a car!" He got it to work, and I plugged in the directions on my phone's GPS. After The Doctor rigged it, I actually have service and a full battery. I told him how to get on the highway and memorized the exit number. "Are there any speed limits? How fast should I go?"

"We're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and you're worried about the speed limit?" I laughed. "Just go!" Once we hit the highway, The Doctor hit the gas pedal.


	7. Chapter 7

We made it to Georgia pretty quickly thanks to our speed but we hit something – god knows what, probably some animal – and ended up with two flat tires. How that happened I couldn't tell you, but we had to gather our things and walk from then on out. It was strange, walking along the highway to get to your destination. We had to run from and kill both zombies and dangerous wildlife to get there, and what should have taken us only another hour or two to drive took us four days to walk without stopping.

We made it all the way up to the South Carolina-Georgia line in two days. I knew it when we saw the sign welcoming us to the beautiful state of South Carolina. I collapsed to my knees on the line between the two states; I was exhausted. I couldn't go any farther. I sat up and then fell backwards, my knees towards the sky and my back and feet firmly on the ground. I let myself breathe in the South Carolina and Georgia air, as if it were different than Florida's. My eyes were closed but I could tell The Doctor was probably looking at me with a strange look on his face. My breathing was deep and heavy. Maybe it was my imagination, but I could smell the peaches that were south of us. Maybe I was just hoping I smelled the peaches. My imagination must have been flaring up because I heard the opening chords of a Luke Bryan song that I loved, and it grew louder and eventually I heard the cocking of a shotgun as The Doctor began to speak. My eyes jolted open as quickly as I sat myself up at this noise.

"No, no, no, no, no! This isn't what it looks like! We're not one of them!" It turns out the Luke Bryan was coming from a massive truck with an American flag flying off the back of it and, from this angle, I could see the back windshield. The Greek letters Kappa Sigma were on there, and I immediately felt safe with something familiar, even though this was a total stranger.

"You're a Kappa Sigma?" I asked him. He looked to me and nodded, still holding his shotgun at The Doctor. I told him what sorority I was in and introduced The Doctor as my friend.

"You are?" he put his gun away. "My sister was initiated into their chapter at USC. Y'all get in, now."

_Got a little boom in my big truck, gonna open up the doors and turn it up, gonna stomp my boots in the Georgia mud, gonna watch you make me fall in love…_

The Kappa Sigma was a Runner from Charlotte. He said he had travelled all over and there was no one left and was glad he found us. For a while he thought he was the last one left. He managed to get gas in his big truck by finding out how to hit the gas pump the right ways. He wore boots, pants that were ripped off at the knee, and a tattered old T-shirt from one of their fraternity events. He had a sweet, southern drawl and sandy hair. He played music in hopes of attracting people, and if it attracted zombies he didn't mind killing them. He had a plethora of weapons and guns in his truck and he was pretty safe.

"Where are y'all headin'?" he asked. I showed him my phone.

"This hospital in Colombia," I read him the info off of my phone. "We're on a mission." While I had my phone running, I sent a report to Journalists 3 and 4 to let them know that I found another Runner from Charlotte.

"Well first, I know I need to bathe. It's been a while. I don't know about y'all."

"That would be nice," I agreed. He grinned. "How have you gotten past the radars?" I asked. "I thought I was the only Runner left for miles."

"I don't like to pay attention to the Radio IV News Network," he shrugged. "Too depressin'."

_…Get up on the hood of my daddy's tractor, up on the toolbox it don't matter, down on the tailgate, girl I can't wait to watch you do your thing…_

We stopped at a baseball field where Kappa Sigma was able to rig the showers in the locker room into working. The guy was handy as anything and it felt so good to finally bathe. Kappa Sigma offered to let me bathe in the room alone, but I didn't want to hold him or The Doctor up from getting clean. After showering and getting dressed again, we took a moment to cook the food we found at the concessions stand and just hang out for a while. We sat in the back of his truck, having a cold beer and warm burger, just like the good old days of college when things were normal and we'd tailgate before a game. We introduced The Doctor to country music as we danced in the back of the truck, singing along.

_…Shake it for the young bucks sittin' in the honky-tonks, for the rednecks rockin' 'till the break of dawn, for the DJ spinning that country song, c'mon c'mon c'mon…_

It was the first time in months that I felt like I could let my hair down. In fact, I did. My guard was completely down in that moment. My shoes were off, my hair was down, and I was dancing with Kappa Sigma in the back of his truck with The Doctor laughing and watching. We tried getting The Doctor up here to teach him how we do it in the south, but he politely shook his head with a laugh. I could tell that deep in his eyes, he wasn't relaxed. He was still on guard, which was something I should have been more of, but I needed to let lose. Too many months of stiffness. I don't think that The Doctor was never not on guard, though.

_…Shake it for the birds, shake it for the bees, shake it for the catfish swimming down deep in the creek, for the crickets and the critters and the squirrels, shake it to the moon, shake it for me girl…_

"Doctor," I jumped off the truck, "please dance with me!" I grabbed his hands and he smiled, laughing and shaking his head yet going along with me. I had him twirl me and then pulled him close to me, swaying our hips to the beat as we carelessly moved together.

_…Country girl shake it for me, girl, shake it for me, girl, shake it for me; country girl shake it for me, girl, shake it for me, girl, shake it for me…_

All of a sudden, it began to downpour. Even though we knew it wouldn't last long, it was heavy enough for us to start laughing, grab our shoes and our beers and dash back inside the truck.


	8. Chapter 8

Things took a turn for the worse very quickly. The rain cleared up, and as Kappa Sigma backed up his truck, he ran over a zombie that had been behind us. "Shit!" he exclaimed as The Doctor and I turned around to look. More zombies came out of the nearby woods; we started by shooting them down, The Doctor passing me what I asked him to pass me, but it grew to a point where we were outnumbered by at least one hundred.

"What do we do?" I asked Kappa Sigma and The Doctor. The Doctor crawled across me from the middle seat, stuck his body out the window and pressed the button on his sonic screwdriver. He held it for a while and then came back in the truck.

"It looks like there's more coming," he frowned. "Can't we just run them over?"

"It doesn't always kill them," Kappa Sigma explained. "Best bet is an automatic or semi-automatic."

"Do you have any of those?" I asked him.

"There's one in the bed of the truck," he nodded his head back. "Somewhere back there, anyways. Just haven't needed it yet."

I turned around. There was no way to get back there while staying inside, as there was too much equipment. Only one solution was left. "Kill all the ones near the car. Now," I commanded, beginning to do such. As I took care of the ones by my side, I opened the door and jumped down, running to the back.

"Runner!" Doctor called out, keeping an eye out on me as Kappa Sigma kept shooting. "Are you mad?!"

"Don't worry, Doctor!" I called to him as I began to climb the back of the truck. "I used to climb these all the time!" I shot him a wink as I settled myself in the bed of the truck. I rummaged through the pile of guns for a few minutes, searching for a semi or automatic.

"Did you find it?" Kappa Sigma shouted back to me.

"I think I just did!" I responded as I picked up his semi-automatic hunting rifle. I checked it for ammo, and upon finding that it was completely loaded, put it on top of the truck as I jumped up on top.

"Runner!" The Doctor called again. "You definitely are mad!"

"Come on, sweetheart!" Kappa Sigma agreed, "let me handle the big boy weapons!"

I ignored what they said and fired away. The Doctor told me I had a job to do, that I was meant to end this mess, so I better start taking my job seriously.

"Runner, I think I'm starting to figure it out!" The Doctor called to me.

"Doctor, don't try to lure me down there!" I continued firing away.

"No, I'm serious!" he exclaimed. "I seriously did! You see, it doesn't make any sense! If they're brain dead, how can they know it's better to travel in packs and that loud noises relate to where they can find people? If they had non-functioning brains, how could any of that be processed? Maybe I was wrong, maybe they aren't actually human! There must be a genetic mutation of sorts going on! Does anyone know how the zombie infestation started? Besides those records at the hospital. We kind of need that help now."

"Nope!" I answered.

"I do!" Kappa Sigma testified. "My ex-girlfriend was on the team of developers."

"Developers for what?" The Doctor asked Kappa Sigma.

"They were doing research at some lab that my sister had an internship at. Something about trying to get coma patients out of comas. But the whole thing backfired; the patients came out of their comas, alright, but they were still comatose. And then it got worse. I went there to look for the files and all I found were recordings that people left for their loved ones but it was all on cassette tape and I didn't have anything to play it on. Who still uses a cassette tape?"

"I can play it in the TARDIS!" The Doctor shouted to me. "Did you hear that, Runner?"

"I heard it, alright!" I answered. "We'll have to take it back down to Bass back in Florida!"

"Runner, get back down here!" Kappa Sigma demanded. "Don't make me go up there!"

"I will if you tell me where the tape is!" I compromised. "I know that's hard because it's probably the last you have of your girlfriend, but we need that tape!"

He was silent. He even stopped shooting. I heard him open and close his truck door and climb up top. He took the semi from my hands and shot at the oncoming zombies with it. "You listen to me. You remind me of my sister, and I believe God sent me you because of that reason. But if we ever want these zombies to stop coming at us, one of us has got to make a sacrifice and I am not allowed to let you or your friend do that. Y'all got potential to save the world, him with his technological whatever that I don't understand and you… you're a whole other story. The keys to the truck are in the ignition. Go. Take everything. The tape is in the glove compartment. God bless ya." He kissed my forehead and then climbed off the truck. I followed him off, but before I could protest him running off shooting into the woods, getting the full attention of all the zombies, The Doctor pulled me into the truck. I found myself on the driver's side and needing to drive, so I quickly adjusted the seat and mirrors and drove far, far away from there.

"Glove compartment," I told The Doctor. "That's where that tape is. We're heading back to the TARDIS, okay?" The Doctor nodded, checking the glove compartment to find that he was right. He not only took his ex-girlfriend's tape, but every tape that was in that building. There was also a name badge for a Molly Marshall, who was probably his sister. In the glove compartment was also a wallet. The Doctor opened it up only to find Kappa Sigma's license, social security card, insurance information, and credit cards in there alongside fifty dollars.

"His name was Alex," The Doctor frowned. "Alex Marshall."

"I feel bad for just letting him do what he just did."

"You can't," The Doctor held my hand that wasn't on the wheel. "He just saved our lives."

"That's why I feel like shit about it." I finally hit the highway, heading north in order to find that hospital. I had The Doctor send the report to Journalists 3 and 4 that Alex was dead and that there was some serious zombie herds in South Carolina. We had our fun, but it was time to get back to business. One of the nice things about no one else on the road was no speed limits. It shaved off a good few hours of our trip, knowing that I could go as fast as this truck let me if I wanted to.

"Where are we going? We have all the tapes," The Doctor asked.

"I wanna see if there are any legitimate files at that hospital," I told him. "Don't be dumb, Doctor. I doubt Alex took everything. I want everything."

"You're brilliant," The Doctor smiled. "Mad, but brilliant."

"No wonder we work well together," I winked. "What is it you say? Geronimo?"

The Doctor's smiled widened. "Geronimo!"


	9. Chapter 9

I realized this was probably a big mistake the moment that we reached the hospital. The hospital was abandoned except for a massive herd of zombies in the parking lot. It was a bigger herd than I had ever seen since the beginning of the apocalypse, save for the herd we encountered that Alex sacrificed himself over. I pulled over about a mile away for us to think of a plan.

"Runner, why don't we have as many zombie herds where you live? It seems to be terrible everywhere else," The Doctor noted.

"A lot of people left because they thought that it was just a problem here. When I was in a group, there were a lot of us for a while. We killed most of them and when it got down to just four of us, we realized a lot of them were in hiding just like we were. And then there'd be times where we'd get attacked by a huge swarm of them," I remembered, "and one of the teammates would sacrifice themselves or not be able to catch up. A lot of people got around for as long as they did because they weren't the slowest. But sooner or later, they were. Remember how I told you about the different kinds of Runners? Our last Gunner, the night we lost him," I swallowed the lump in my throat, "he must have killed a thousand by himself. Just in that one night. The guy was a hero. Our Archer and I… we were alright because of him. The apocalypse had made him cold, I never knew him before all this but you could just tell. They must have taken his loved ones and his heart turned to stone or something. Same story as everybody else, really."

"What about the bodies?" The Doctor asked. "Why aren't there just piles of dead zombies hanging around?"

"When things would clear up, we'd toss them to the woods or lakes or in the dumpsters behind restaurants. Some people would bury their loved ones if they turned. It's not like a video game where once you kill the enemy the body just vanishes right away. We have to take care of the bodies, which is probably the most unpleasant thing I've had the experience of doing. I remember a lot of people saying that they'd love to experience a zombie apocalypse," I frowned. "Notice that those people are dead now. This isn't Dead Island where you hit it with a baseball bat a few times and then it goes away. People forgot that we'd have a death toll to be responsible for. It's hard, when you look at someone you know and you just have to shoot them between the eyes and they aren't the person you remembered," I pursed my lips. Memories flooded back to the beginning of the apocalypse, back to the early days, and I had to force myself to take a deep breath.

"So what exactly are we gonna do about this herd?" The Doctor nervously asked. I looked to the herd, then to The Doctor, and then back to the herd. I shrugged.

"We only have one option, don't we?"

"We're gonna kill all of them? With more probably coming? We aren't even inside yet!" The Doctor exclaimed.

"Well," I shifted the car into drive, "we're gonna have to get in somehow!" I hit the accelerator with a lead foot, speeding as fast as the truck allowed me and driving right into the parking lot. The car spun a bit when I went to control it, but I managed to stop the car before it could crash into the building. A good chunk of the zombies managed to die under the wheels of the truck but we still had a lot to worry about. "Grab a gun and help me!" I instructed. The Doctor nodded, knowing it had to be done. I grabbed the semi-automatic from earlier, tossed it on top of the truck and climbed up from out of the window as quickly as I could. I took position where I was earlier and helped The Doctor up. It wasn't easy, but we managed to complete the task. We jumped down, doing our best to walk over the dead bodies. My gun was out of ammunition, so I opted for my own personal two smaller pistols to bring in with me. There were loads more zombies in the hospital, but we managed to either get around them or kill them before they could get to us. If they were behind, we could hear their moans or footsteps against the linoleum of the hospital floor. We had to search every floor and decided it would be best to stick together; we couldn't afford to be left alone when there were massive herds in this hospital. By the time we reached the third floor, we must have dodged a hundred zombies and killed about just as many.

We reached a point on the third floor where The Doctor and I had to choose to go left or right, and when I looked to my right down the hallway I stopped dead in my tracks. "Doctor, look," I whispered, taking a step back to peer around the corner instead of standing in plain sight. The Doctor joined me and looked down the hallway with widened eyes.

"Is that..?"

"I think so," I nodded. I held my gun out as I peered around the corner, ready to defend us. The trail of blood down the hallway lead to two dead bodies – one human and one zombie – and a girl standing by them, probably in shock. They were in a pool of blood and the trail started at the other end of the hallway. I saw blood running down her arm. Behind her was a room that had been sealed off with CONFIDENTIAL sign on the door. It looked like it had once been locked, but was now barricaded, probably by Alex. That had to be the lab.

The girl turned to look behind her before taking a step forward only to see me standing there, gun in hand. She reached down for her own gun, which was in the pool of blood. "Who are you?" she called out.

"I could ask you the same thing," I retorted. "Do we have a problem here?"

"My friend got bit," she looked down to the two of them. "We had been flying under the radar for a while now, and wanted to start fresh so we figured we'd look-"

"For those files in that lab behind you?" I finished for her, pointing my gun at the door. Her eyes widened. "Yeah. I know all about it. So put your weapon down and no one gets hurt."

"Why should I trust you?" she called back.

"You've been bit," The Doctor called out, "haven't you?" He stepped out from behind me.

"No, I haven't," she scoffed. "My fiancé was. Not me."

"Then how could you have so easily killed your fiancé?" The Doctor asked. "My friend here couldn't bring herself to kill her sorority sister and had a very difficult time killing someone she had potential relations with that was in her group when he got bit. So why would it be so easy for you," he began pacing, "to kill your fiancé?"

"I knew I would be saving him," she responded, but I could hear her voice falter. She was lying. The Doctor looked to me and I nodded.

"Then what's that blood dripping down your sleeve and through your shirt for?" he pointed to her arm. "Why don't you take off your jacket for us?"

"I killed him before I could change him, okay?" she cried out. "Because I know he'd never kill me! Now I need to get these files so I can-"

"It's too late for you now," I shook my head.

"Take your jacket off, please," The Doctor asked her kindly. Instead of doing what he asked, she pointed her gun to him, but I pulled my trigger before she could think fast enough. I cringed as we watched part of her brain hit the window when she fell. Between the human brains and pool of blood, it took everything in me to not vomit. You'd think you'd get used to blowing a person's brains out after a few months, but every now and then it still hits you right in your gut. The Doctor looked to me after I shot her, aware that I saved him from suffering a similar fate. He could have regenerated, sure, but he didn't have time for that. "Thank you," he smiled. I nodded.

"Let's get those files," I climbed over the three bodies. "I just want to get the hell out of here." I hated the reminders that there really was no more humanity. Even when I was wrong about being the last Runner in Region IV, I was right once again. The Doctor helped me break down the barricade in front of the door – it was only as high as the door handle – and we pushed open the door to find the lab we were looking for. I went through every file cabinet, taking every bit of paper I could find. Files on test patients, reports for the progress, and information about the drug were scattered throughout the cabinets and drawers. We could tell where Alex had ransacked the place; parts of it were untouched but parts of it were ripped apart. After we gathered everything, clearing the room of anything potentially valuable, we left and climbed back over the bodies. We dodged more zombies on our way out, and I knew what had to be done. It was so infested that I had to follow orders: if a building you encounter has more than 400 surviving zombies, it must burn. I found some gasoline in the back of Alex's truck and poured some of it by the entrance. The car had stalled after it went out of control upon our arrival, but The Doctor helped me get it to work with his sonic screwdriver. Once the car was driving again, I took a match from my bag, lit it, and threw it at the hospital, speeding off as the hospital lit up.


	10. Chapter 10

I called Journalist 4 to report two unknowns as dead. Journalist 3 was infected. Journalist 4 kept the call brief, mainly because he was clearly mourning. I didn't want to interrupt. He said that their base was overrun by one of the herds of over 200 zombies, and he managed to get out of a window with some equipment before the zombies reached their room, but Journalist 3 didn't make it in time. Medic 7 had been with them and died helping Journalist 4 get supplies out so he could set up elsewhere.

We took the highway until we reached an area that was about four exits before the one we needed to take. The highway was overridden with zombies who must have been travelling to my city. I made a quick dodge for the exit off of the highway, knowing that the quickest way back to Bass Pro Shop was actually not by road but to cut through the woods. The Doctor grasped onto his seat as I took a sharp turn, whacking a zombie off into the distance as I did such. The Doctor's eyes widened. "What are you doing?"

"It's much faster this way," I declared, "a little riskier but we're fucked either way, so the faster we can get there the better." I slowed down once we reached the middle of the cypress forest, maneuvering the massive truck around trees. Zombie herds littered this place, as did animals. As we reached halfway through the woods, a zombie with a bobcat on its trail lunged right in front of the car, causing the bobcat to jump on the hood and crash its head through the windshield, earning a scream out of both The Doctor and I. The glass pierced the bobcat's neck, and the zombie was still alive. I quickly shot at it a few times until I hit it in the head; trying to do so with a bobcat in front of us was no easy task. I looked over to The Doctor. "You okay?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah. Are you?"

I examined myself before nodding. "I think so. No shards in me or anything. We gotta ditch the truck."

"What about all the files and tapes?"

"Shove them in my bag," I grabbed it and opened it up, "and hurry. There are tons more zombies."

"Won't this weigh you down?" The Doctor asked.

"Either help me or leave, Doctor!" He looked up at me at this statement as I continued to shove every file and tape into my bag. He was right, it would weigh me down, but I used to carry a much heavier load in here. I didn't have any food left in there, just some weapons and a bottle of water. The files didn't add much weight, but there were four tapes and they added some weight. "I've managed to survive this long, right?" I had begun to reach a point in which my survival instincts were at an all-time high. My adrenaline was constantly pumping. I could practically feel the blood rushing through my veins at all times. "Now," I looked up to The Doctor once everything important was in my bag, "run. We're going to go straight until we reach a road. When you reach that road, turn right. Then it's only about two miles until we reach the road in which Bass Pro Shop is on, and that's where the TARDIS is."

"Alright," The Doctor nodded.

"Now," I whispered, nodding in response as I opened the door to the truck and left it behind. I bolted, not bothering to look back at The Doctor because I knew he would keep up enough. The herds here were small and not moving very quickly until we were almost out of there. We came across a giant pool of what looked like sunken mud, rainwater and blood with the occasional organ floating about. There were zombies on either side of it, and based on experience I knew that they didn't function in water. They knew they didn't function in water – they simply sank and drowned – so they just stood at the pool, heading towards The Doctor and I as we kept going forward. I took my bag off, held it over my head and ran right in, trekking through the water and holding my bag up so the tapes wouldn't get water damage.

"What's in here?" The Doctor called out.

"Probably guts, blood and mud," I called out, "but zombies can't swim, they just drown. If we stop, we die. Just remember that."

Upon emerging, the zombies were right on our tails. I put my bag back on as we continued running, picking my pace right back up even though I was covered in a film of mud and blood. I wasn't sure if the blood had belonged to a human or zombie. When we only had about another quarter of a mile left of woods, we had a herd chase us, about twenty of them running faster than I had seen zombies run. I picked up the pace, hoping that The Doctor did too, and immediately turned right once I hit the road, praying that they would lose sight of The Doctor and I once we hit the streets. I could hear one of the zombies behind me, but I also heard it fall. I looked at it as I ran away from it only to see that The Doctor still had a gun on him and had shot it; he shot me a smile when I looked to him. I shot one that was getting closer to him to his left, and shot him a wink.

Once we made that last turn, we lost the herd. We didn't stop running until we were by the entrance of Bass Pro Shop, where I stopped to vomit in one of the outdoor trash bins as The Doctor caught up to me. The power was finally off in there, so The Doctor headed in there to try to change that with his sonic screwdriver. I needed to eat something – I hadn't in a while – and rehydrate my body. I took small sips of my water bottle and raided the kitchen of the restaurant for any nonperishables I may have missed before. I found a bunch of small crackers served with soup and took a few packets of them to pick on. I found a few washcloths, so The Doctor and I used those, the sink and the leftover soap in the kitchen to rid of the dirt and blood that covered us from the waist down. The Doctor led me to the TARDIS and showed me where we could play the tapes. I immediately sat down, needing to let my body slow down, and emptied out the contents of my bag. As The Doctor gathered the tapes, I organized the files. I was too tired to be shocked at the interior of the TARDIS, especially considering the exterior of it.

"Files or tapes first?" I asked.

"Files," The Doctor suggested, taking a seat across from me. "They might be mentioned in the tapes."

"Good idea." I took a deep breath before taking another sip of my water. "Where do we begin?"


	11. Chapter 11

The files gave us information about the hospital staff on the assignment as well as the patients. Twenty-seven coma patients received a mix of chemicals – we were still looking for that file – that would have awaken them from their coma. The first patient to show signs of zombie behavior was Patient 23, a forty-three year old male who had been there for five months. At first they thought he had recovered before they noted his glassy eyes and an odd stench coming from his body. He would foam at the mouth occasionally, moved slowly yet had quick reflexes, and he was then tied down to his bed for further investigation. The other patients started showing similar signs, and when one of the researchers – there were six in total – went to examine closer, they got bit. The researcher then developed symptoms similar to the flu, suffered a seizure, foam at the mouth and after their seizure, had the same glassy eyes as the patients. All patients and the infected researcher also shared incredibly pale skin with prominent veins. None of the patients had a pulse or signs of brain activity. While testing this, another researcher was bitten, leaving only four. One of them tried shooting at the infected researcher, only to discover that it was only effective when struck in the head.

_Ryan, if you get this… I am so, so sorry. For everything, really. I've done nothing but lie to you for the past ten months now since I agreed to take on this project and everything has been going so horribly wrong. I'm so sorry, Ryan. Really, I am. I'm so scared, Ryan… I hope you can understand me despite all this crying, I'm such a mess. I'm scared, and we're trapped here, and I'm nowhere near you, and I just want to be with you and our baby and I can't. I wish I never signed on for this. This project isn't anything like I told you it was. I'm so, so sorry for the lies. And I'm so, so sorry for being part of this problem. I love you, so much, and I miss you and I wish I was with you right now. I have to go now, but I love you. And tell Sam that mommy loves him._

"So this whole thing has been going on for at least ten months," I noted, getting the confirmation of dates from the paperwork. "And they're completely responsible. Great. What's the next one labeled?"

"Claire Erwin," The Doctor read off the front of the cassette. "Let's put this one in."

_Alex, I pray to God that you get this. Oh, Alex, I'm so scared. I wish I was with you and my ma and papa right now. Alex, listen to me, get in your truck with all of your guns and your family and run. Just drive away, get the hell out of here. It isn't safe. The whole country won't be safe either. Just drive far away and find a random airport and get on a random flight out of here. I may be your ex-girlfriend but I still love you and need you to stay safe. I knew I shouldn't have taken this damn internship. The other intern got infected and the head of the research department for this case is dead. We've been giving the zombies this weird batch of chemicals, I don't even know what it is, they wouldn't tell me. But it got them out of their comas and now they're zombies and I'm so scared. Alex, whatever you do, get the hell out of here. Stay safe… for me. Please. This will spread soon, I can tell._

A silence struck The Doctor and I after listening to Alex's ex-girlfriend's recording. I was heartbroken that he came so close, but never got to hear it. "Put in the next one," I broke the silence. We had to move on. I listened as I continued to search for the file that contained information about what they had given the patients.

_Lisa, I wish I told you how much I love you. I've had a crush on you since we were young and now I'm gonna die. Remember how we always said you'd be a bad ass apocalyptic leader? It's time to be one. I'm not supposed to know, but I think I know what they're doing. I think the mix is a massive adrenaline shot, like that one in Pulp Fiction, but with heavy amounts of amphetamine and some other chemical that I watched Doctor Arden mix up herself. This whole thing was an accident, it really was. It's terrifying! Head-shot wounds kill these zombies… that's the only way I can describe them. They're zombies, Lisa, but I know you can handle them. I know you can._

"Adrenaline, amphetamine, and mystery drug," The Doctor repeated. "Probably another stimulant. Something that would have heavy effects on the brain or the nervous system."

The Doctor began to ramble off what it could be, but I never was the best at understanding chemistry so most of what he said just went in one ear and out the other as I continued rummaging through the files. I was getting frustrated and when I threw Doctor Arden's file down, a paper slipped out of it that hadn't been there before. I picked it up, slowly examining it. Based on the texture of the paper, you could tell that it had been stuck to another page. "Doctor!" I cut him off.

"What, Runner?" he stopped mid-sentence. I held up the file and found myself smiling out of victory.

"Look what I found," I looked him in the eyes. As he ran over to read the document with me, The Doctor's smile matched my own.


	12. Chapter 12

_To whoever hears this – because, unlike the others, I know for a fact that this will never make it out of this room unless someone strong enough can break in to it – my name is Doctor Mary Arden and I have made a huge mistake. I suppose that whoever finds this tape deserves to know exactly what happened, and hopefully you've succeeded in finding the file as well. My employees were foolish enough to not realize what the power of tape can do. We were doing everything we could to try to revive these coma patients out of their comatose, but we kept failing. I know this sounds cheesy and unethical, but I prayed to God that night for a miracle. Instead, what I received was a gift from Hell. When I entered my car at my home on the way to the hospital, it began to rain. With that rain fell a large, heavy stone of sorts. It was definitely foreign and not of this planet. It almost looked like it fell from Mars or the sun, but yet again I doubt that's destiny… when I arrived early to lab I studied it and realized that it may have just the kick that my shots of essentially nothing more than amphetamines and caffeine – with deadly amounts of amphetamines, might I add – needed. I… I crushed up the rock until it was a fine powder. I photographed it and hopefully you find the picture in my file. So I put it into the mixture, letting the others know that something had been added but I refused to tell them what – mainly because I had no idea what to call it – and then we began to inject the patients. They became… they became zombies. One of the other employees is dead and an intern has been infected or vice versa and I am losing my wits due to the extreme guilt that I feel due to being the sole cause of this entire apocalypse. I know I speak early into this era, but that is what it will become, I can tell. This is how the human race-_

Doctor Mary Arden is suddenly cut off with a distant scream that is her own. This is where the recording ends. Her entire tape, she was surprisingly composed, despite the graphic sounds that could faintly be heard in the background. The zombies must have been having their way with the doctors.

"They didn't try to run," The Doctor noted. "Not a single one of them."

"Probably her orders. She knew they'd die anyways," I shrugged. "It was her responsibility, she felt the need to die with that."

"Then where were their bones when we went to the hospital?" The Doctor asked.

"Doctor, they're dead," I concluded. "You heard the noise going on in there. I've heard it one too many times to know exactly what that means. I've seen zombies suck on bones like a child with a lollipop. Trying to get every last bit of meat off of there that they can." The Doctor pondered this for a moment.

"May I see that photograph that Doctor Arden referenced?" he asked. I flipped through her file before finding it and handing it to him. He didn't take long to study the photograph before the shock covered his face. "What?!"

"What?" I also asked, confused.

"This…" The Doctor shook his head, standing and walking around the TARDIS. "No. This can't be possible. How is this possible? It can't be…" He then compared the photo to something he had pulled up – I didn't care to move from my seat – and his face fell. "No."

"Doctor, what is it?" I asked.

"Do you remember my home planet, Runner? Gallifrey?" I nodded. "This rock… this rock was part of Gallifrey."

"I thought Gallifrey was destroyed in the Time War?"

"It was," The Doctor explained. "But I guess little pieces of it were left to wander space and eventually get caught up in an atmosphere."

"So, what do we do now?" I sighed.

"I know exactly what we have to do to wipe this planet clean of zombies. There's something we can send out into the atmosphere-"

"But what about the living?" I reminded him.

"Haven't thought of that yet!" The Doctor leaned against the TARDIS' control panel. "I need to figure out a way to do that without eliminating humans that haven't been infected yet. It's almost as if we need to send out a vaccine but it only works if you're infected."

"And if you're not infected?" I dared ask. I knew the answer: the answer sat in a lump in my throat.

"Death," The Doctor confirmed.

"Would you mind if we left here so I could go check a radio report?" I managed past that massive lump. The Doctor saw the pain in my eyes and I saw the struggle in his. Neither of us wanted to kill the living, but we had to kill the undead. The Doctor nodded.

"Good idea. Let's go check up on the rest of the world."


	13. Chapter 13

The Doctor and I headed towards the apartment complex we went to before, but went through some woods in order to try to find wildlife to hunt for food considering all of our other options were depleted of their food source. I shot down a few birds and a deer that The Doctor helped me drag along. When we reached the apartment complex, we skinned the animals and let them cook while I turned on the radio. Journalist 4 was in a panic state.

"Runner? I… I'm going to be gone soon and you'll be automatically transferred over to the nearest live radio network. But… everyone here, except for you and The Doctor… we're dead. Either dead or zombies. I've done the math, Runner, and we're the last ones in this region. You'll probably hear from some middle of the country state. And I've gotten reports from other countries, too… they're close to wiped out. Africa's gone. The UK is mostly gone. Most of inland Europe isn't far behind. Russia only has a few left. Haven't heard much from Asia but what I have heard hasn't been good. The Australians are freaking out. The infection spread via airwaves when people who were unknowingly affected travelled. And it's just done nothing but rapidly spread. It's like the Black Plague! I didn't know it was possible for things to spread so quickly… once it started to really get out there, it just didn't stop!"

"What about the States?" I asked. "You told me once that only .001 percent of the population never tuned in. That's still about 3,161 people that are unaccounted for. Three of them I know to be dead, so let's say 3,158. I did the math. Where the hell are they all?"

"Mostly dead, probably," Journalist 4 sighed. "Listen, Runner, I need you to promise me something." His radio transmission was starting to get fuzzy. "E-" he tried to say my name, but he was breaking up as I heard zombies swarm. "Please stay alive. Please. I know you can fix-"

"Dean," I called out to him, surprising The Doctor. "Dean, you're breaking up. Please, Dean! Stay with me! You can make it out of there!" Nothing. Just static. "Dean!" My brows furrowed and my lips pursed. My eyes closed.

"To all of those listening out there," a new voice tuned in with a thick New Jersey accent, "I've just picked up on a signal from Region IV. It appears that they only have two survivors in their region, so thank you for joining us and please stand strong. Runner and The Doctor, I've been told. That's funny, never heard of that title…"

"How many are in your region?" I asked.

"We've only got about twelve of us left. A few that were unaccounted for have been reported to us but they've died within moments. None of them have a very high survival rate."

"How many are reported to be alive right now in the United States? And do we know about the world?" The Doctor asked.

"I've got the stats right here," their Journalist answered. I could hear him ruffling through some files.

"Who the hell are these blokes?" another Jersey accent piped in.

"Shut up, Runner 3. It's Runner and The Doctor from Region IV. They're the last survivors of that Region. It's probably best if they get out of there."

"Oh, shit," Runner 3 exclaimed, "you guys are like, legends or somethin'."

"Excuse me, but J..?"

"J2. I'm J2," he answered.

"We need those stats," I answered, "preferably now."

"Right!" Journalist 2 regained focus. "Let's see. Region I: Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. Seven confirmed living. Region II, that's us here in Jersey alongside New York, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have twelve, as I told you. Region III: Delaware, DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the Virginias. Completely wiped out. All zombies. Region IV: Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee and the Carolinas just has you and The Doctor. Region V-"

"I know what states are in the regions, for god's sake, can you just tell me the statistics?" I snapped.

"Sorry, yeah, my bad," Journalist 2 chuckled nervously. "Anyways, Region V, VI, and VII are completely wiped. Region VIII's only got three people left. Region IX has five, and Region X is left with nobody. That means there are currently twenty-nine accounted for that are alive in the United States."

"A little over 3,000 people went unaccounted for on these news networks, J2," I sighed. "I highly doubt that every single one of them is dead."

"The lot of them prob'ly is, bunch of jackasses. We had a lot of those, buncha tough New Yorkers and what not thinkin' that they'd be just fine. Not the case. Boston had a similar problem."

"How the hell do we have 3,000 people unaccountable for?" I finally broke down. I could feel the lump in my throat and the tears behind my eyes. "I refuse to believe that 3,000 people we don't know about are all dead! They have got to be out there surviving! I met one of them, he saved our lives, if it wasn't for us then he'd probably still be alive!"

"Runner," The Doctor placed a hand on my shoulder. I snapped to him, seeing how worried he was. He remained calm. "Runner, please take a deep breath. Alex wasn't our fault. His death was not your fault, okay? Listen, J2, I know how we can fix this but I'm not sure how to do this without wiping out the rest of the living population." The Doctor remaining calm helped calm me down as I took a few deep breaths quietly.

"To be honest, Doctor," Journalist 2 sighed, "at the rate of infection, we're gonna end up with an approximated U.S. population of seven by the end of next week. That's excluding, of course, the 3,000 that we don't know about." When he finished speaking, we could hear a groan and a crash. Everything went silent at that, the four of us just listening and waiting. More groaning could be heard in the distance. The Doctor and I knew what was coming, but we knew we couldn't say anything to the Journalists 3 and 4. I swallowed the lump in my throat, not wanting to hear any more deaths today, but I couldn't let them die alone.

"How many are there?" I asked after a long silence.

"I spot seven," Journalist 3 announced sadly. "There's no way we're gonna make it."

"Runner?" Journalist 2 began. I could hear the fear in his voice but he was trying to stay strong. "Just… whatever you have to do, do it. Those people are dead, let's face it. They're not as quick as you have been. There's a reason you're still alive and a lot of us aren't. Do what you must, okay? Forget the others. Just do it."

"J2, you know I can't do that," I pursed my lips.

"You might have to," he gravely retorted. He turned off his side of the radio transmission then; he knew it was time. I sat back, surprised at his words and actions. I couldn't just kill over three thousand people in America alone. I felt responsible for them, for their lives, and for the lives that they could bring into this Earth. The Doctor saw this on my face and for a moment, I felt how he must have felt every second of every day. These people looked up to me, considering I was a legend now, and I couldn't just let them down.

"What are we going to do, Doctor?" I looked to him.

The Doctor sighed as he adjusted his bow tie. "I don't know, Runner. I don't know."


	14. Chapter 14

A week or two had passed – I lost track - and I figured it best to not tune into the radio stations for a while. I took The Doctor to the beach, where we had to fight off about a hundred zombies but managed to kill them all throughout our first week at the beach. We slept on the roofs of some of the beach houses until we found one that was empty and didn't have any zombies in it. The Doctor unlocked the door with his screwdriver and while he worked to get the power running, I searched the house to see if they had any fishing gear; if not, I would have to find something to make a spear from. Since they didn't have any rods, spear fishing it would be. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to go too deep for substantial fish. I checked the closets to see if they had anything I could wear while in the water. I found a rash guard – they had longboards, too, which I would use to paddle out if I needed to – and a bathing suit that looked like it would fit me well enough.

I had missed being out in the water. The bathing suit was a little tight but the rash guard fit well enough to cover my mostly exposed chest. Spear fishing went better than I had expected, especially considering I had only done it before on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River. Our Archer, Duke, was really good at it and taught everyone how when our whole pack was still together. I still clearly needed practice, but over the span of a few hours I managed to catch enough fish for the both of us. They sat on the paddleboard beside me where I could make sure they wouldn't fall off. The Doctor came to enjoy the beach from the shore, waiting for me to come back with our dinner. After I caught enough, I just sat on the board for a while, enjoying the sunset with the pier in the distance. A dolphin swam by me – I could see it from under the water – and it poked its fin up as it continued to swim past me. After the sun had set – it must have been around eight o'clock now – I paddled out to shore and The Doctor helped me carry in the fish. After I put the board away, I cooked it and we sat out on the back deck, enjoying whatever it was that I caught. He had a large pile of custard on his plate alongside his fish.

"What are we going to do?" I asked almost blankly. In my peripheral vision, I saw The Doctor turn to me with a sad expression. My eyes were focused on the gulf.

"We're going to have to gas the planet with that vaccination," The Doctor shrugged. "I don't want to kill the living, but it looks like the zombies are doing that for us already."

"What about all of the animals?" I asked, thinking of the dolphin I saw in the water. "Will they be okay?"

"I'm not sure," The Doctor frowned. "I just know that it will wipe out the zombies and probably the other humans, if any are even left."

"I can't just let them all die, Doctor," I gasped. I wiped my eyes with my sleeve before the tears could start falling. "I feel like their life is my responsibility. You must feel that every day. There has to be a way," I shook my head. We probably couldn't fit thousands of people into the TARDIS. That option was ruled out. We didn't have time to get them to another planet; the zombie infection was spreading far too rapidly. "People are getting infected or dying as we speak. It's going to stay that way until they're all dead and gone, isn't it?" I realized. The Doctor nodded.

"Not everyone is as clever as you, Runner," The Doctor sighed. "While you were fishing, I thought everything over. They're all damned. They changed into zombies because of that bit of Gallifrey in them. We Time Lords have regenerative properties, as you know, and that's what that rock gave them."

"So we have no other choice," I concluded. "There is no Plan B."

"No Plan B," The Doctor confirmed. "Except for maybe join the undead."

"Don't even joke about that," I jokingly glared at him. He gave me a warm smile.

"We can save a few people along the way, I suppose," The Doctor recommended. "Grab a few strong survivors. That way you won't end up totally alone."

"Probably a good plan," I nodded. "Should we crash here for the night and then head back for the TARDIS tomorrow, then?" I suggested. The Doctor nodded.

"You need to sleep. Your eyes are heavy. Please don't take that offensively."

"I know they are," I chuckled. Things weren't really funny to me anymore and The Doctor knew it. When we had moments of down time he'd do his best to cheer me up, and it helped, but never completely made me laugh. I didn't want to lose any more people, but they were all going to die anyways. For all we knew, they might all die tonight.

I tuned into the radio station but didn't say anything. I just listened for once. They discussed the mass amounts of people who had died over the course of the last week or two, however long it had been since I spoke to the journalists in New Jersey. This broadcast was in Region IX, but I wasn't sure exactly where in Region IX. Based on how the woman spoke, it sounded like New Mexico. She had the same pitch to her voice as one of my sisters from Albuquerque. The Doctor must have heard me listening to the news cast in the bedroom I was staying in, because he came to the door and stood, listening with me.

"You can't blame yourself, Runner," The Doctor spoke up as the journalist began listing the amount of confirmed losses of human life in their area. The United States population was dwindling. More people were tuning into radio stations that never did before, and their number was decreasing too.

"I'm trying not to," I replied, lowering the volume of the news broadcast just as she stated the date. "Funny. It's my birthday today, I guess."

"It is?" The Doctor's face immediately held an expression of excitement. I laughed.

"Yeah. The journalist in Region IX just said the date. I'm twenty-one today."

"Well!" The Doctor beamed. "We have to celebrate! You can legally drink today, am I right? That's how it works in the States?" He had me laughing. I nodded. "Well, I'm going to raid this house for something great to drink that isn't past its expiration date, and if I can't find anything we'll make it work!"

"I haven't had alcohol in so long," I laughed. "I barely had a few sips of that beer Alex gave me that day. It's probably better if I don't. The last thing I need tomorrow morning is a hangover."

"No excuses, Miss Runner!" The Doctor called out; he was already halfway down the stairs. "You're going to celebrate and you're going to like it! I'll be doing most of the work tomorrow anyways!"

"I'm only having one drink!" I insisted with a laugh. The Doctor came up with two shot glasses and a party hat – he must have rummaged through their cabinets – causing me to laugh. "Only one drink!"

"Then enjoy your shot," The Doctor smirked. "Happy birthday, Runner."

"Eve," I corrected him. The Doctor looked confused for a moment before the realization finally hit him.

"That's your name, isn't it?" His eyes lit up. I smiled and nodded.

"Eve Beathan," I confirmed. It was the first time I had heard my own name in what felt like forever. "That's me."

The Doctor looked so happy that he could cry. He held up his shot glass, and I held mine up to his. "Happy birthday, Eve. Cheers to you."


	15. Chapter 15

had stayed true to my word and that one shot of vodka cranberry was the only thing I had to drink that night. If there wasn't a zombie apocalypse, I probably would have been out with a bunch of my sisters taking shots until the sun came up at the local bar, or down in Key West for the Duval Crawl, but survival became a priority.

This priority is what woke me up from my sleep at four in the morning. I heard the typical zombie noises – groaning, walking into buildings, stumbling, exasperated attempts at breathing – but it sounded like there were hundreds of them and that they were moving much faster than usual. "Doctor!" I called, suddenly wide awake and nervous. I ran to my bag, grabbing binoculars and a gun as The Doctor ran across the hall to join me as I looked out my bedroom window. "This isn't good," I frowned, "to put it delicately." I looked out the window and saw the mass horde of zombies, but they weren't unarmed; some of them had guns draped around them. "How do they have guns?" I sat back, placing my gun beside me on my bed before my head found my hands. The Doctor took the binoculars from me and looked outside.

"How is that even possible?" The Doctor spat. "I just… I can't even fathom it. Zombies with guns!" he laughed nervously. "And of course they're heading straight towards us. Lovely, isn't it, Eve?"

"There's got to be at least three hundred of them out there," I sighed. "We can't take them on! Especially if they're armed, who knows how conscious they are about what they've got hanging around their shoulders?"

"There's no way we can start shooting them?"

"We don't have any machine guns, and even if we did we don't have enough ammo. That would be our only chance of killing them unless we got that vaccine thing you have planned out right now."

"What about those 3,000 people?" The Doctor asked. I could tell he was hesitant about it too, despite seeming so confident before. He had probably been so confident for my sake. I didn't even answer his question; I simply packed my bag, grabbed it and ran downstairs, searching for the radio that I knew they had in the house somewhere. I found it in the living room, searching all of the dials.

"I'm not getting any signals!" I let out a groan of frustration and whacked the side of the radio with my fist, which resulted in the radio signal acting up and then resulting in the words that none of us ever wanted to hear.

"We're sorry," the automated voice spoke on the radio, "but there are no more available broadcasts. For those who are still alive, survival tips include-"

"No," I breathed, shaking my head. "No, no, no!" I changed the station only to get the same message on every possible network. "No," I slumped for a moment, The Doctor realizing what that meant without me having to say anything. "We need to get out of here. We need to get to the TARDIS and we need to get there now."

"There are zombies surrounding the entire perimeter with the exception of the back by the beach," The Doctor frowned. "We have to run as fast as we can. They'll be on us in no time."

"We're going to be running for a few hours," I reminded The Doctor, "so we have to manage to outpace them quickly or else we'll exhaust and be dead. If we don't take the main roads it'll be faster. It's slightly more dangerous because we've got wildlife to worry about in the back roads, but we'll be more likely to lose them. But we can't go too fast," I instructed, "or else we'll tire out immediately and then we'll definitely be dead. I'm ready when you are," I placed the straps on from my backpack.

The Doctor nodded. "Geronimo," he smirked. We took our time getting to the back door, opening and closing it as slowly as we possibly could. The zombies were just starting to make their way to the back of the house, which faced the beach. We'd be running on sand for a while, which was both a blessing and a curse. The sand was more difficult to run in, but it would slow down the zombies if we started off in it. We didn't start running until one of them noticed us. One with an AK-47 strapped around it paused, tilted its head at us – it was missing a jaw and you could see where its stomach once was – and began stumbling our way. We picked up a very light jog, keeping a steady pace with each other, and didn't pick it up until a few more joined it. By the time we reached a point where we could switch to the road, we had the group following us. Hundreds of zombies trailed behind us a few feet, so The Doctor and I began running but not breaking out into a sprint as to not tire. We reached the bridge that took you off and on the island, doing our best to keep a steady pace as we ran uphill, starting to lose them during the incline and once we reached the other end of the bridge, we ran even faster to really get them off of our trail. We stuck to the main roads for a bit until we reached a park, in which we cut through it to get to the creek we'd have to cross. There were still zombies behind us as we reached the creek but they were pretty far, and distant enough for us to maintain a steady pace. As we crossed the creek, which was more difficult than The Doctor and I had anticipated, a few of the zombies managed to catch up to us by the creek. A few of them stepped forward into it, and while most of them didn't make it much further than that, we still did have a large amount of them on our trails. About a third of the group of zombies had stopped at the edge of the creek, another third drowned and the last third followed. The group that stayed by the banks began firing a few gunshots, which The Doctor and I had to now dodge. Their aim was poor, but it was still a concern.

"How are they even firing?" I called to him as we ran.

"Maybe they aren't as mindless as we think!" The Doctor responded. "The zombies, they might be a new subspecies of the human race! The regenerative properties in the ash from Gallifrey could also be regenerating their minds now!"

"Just run faster!" I instructed. It made sense: if their bodies could regenerate, why couldn't their minds? I made a sharp turn, which The Doctor caught, but a few of the zombies were too slow to catch on right away. We ran through smaller side streets, exhausted after running for hours, and we slowed only once they were about two miles behind. We needed to catch our breath and eat something so we wouldn't pass out. We each took a few small sips of water that I had from a water bottle in my backpack – too much at once would make us cramp – and there were a few stale packages of Saltines leftover that would suffice. We walked swiftly while we ate, not wasting any time, only to start up a slow jog again. We would definitely be sick after this run, but it was either that or die.


	16. Chapter 16

Along the way, a few zombies trailed off, but some still managed to come close. I would shoot them as they came nearby, and one of them almost got a hold of me and The Doctor, but I couldn't let that happen. My adrenaline was pumping too much for survival to be the only option. Death was impossible right now. It was not an option at all.

The last stretch had to be the fastest I had ever run in my life. The whole world was my responsibility now. There were no news signals, there were no signs of human life, and there was no one besides me and The Doctor right now. It was up to me to rebuild this world so I absolutely could not die.

When we reached Bass Pro Shop, I shot the last few zombies without hesitation and then threw up behind a few racks of clothing. I used a random men's shirt to wipe my mouth, tossing it off of the hanger and onto the pile of what I had gagged up. Zombies were starting to enter the shop, but I was feeling weak. The Doctor waited for me in the TARDIS, which I stumbled over towards as zombies caught up to me. I made it in before they could reach it the TARDIS, but just barely. This place would have to be burned considering the zombies were filtering their way in, and I lit the match and threw it just as the TARDIS flew off, just hitting the propane tank outside. I immediately sat down against a wall after I closed the door.

"Are you okay?" The Doctor asked instantly. I didn't speak, but simply nodded my head. The Doctor knew I was lying. "Eve, you're not okay. It's okay to be not okay," he smiled, squatting in front of me with a fresh bottle of water and a banana. "Take your time with it. Relax."

"Thanks," I nodded, sipping the water before starting on the banana. I took deep breaths as The Doctor prepared what he needed to prepare, setting up the TARDIS for cleansing the Earth of zombies. They were no longer mindless beings anymore. They were completely conscious that they were attacking us and resorting to violence; it was all that they had known in this life. Since they stepped out into the world, we have gone at them with guns and axes and baseball bats and crossbows. All they've seen is survival and us fighting for it, so they would try to do the same. Naturally that's how they would retaliate once their minds were functioning. We were at war, and they were winning until now.

The Doctor sent the TARDIS up to fly above the Earth, having me hold open the door to make sure that it was working and to grab anybody that would have had a chance at survival if it weren't for the toxins going into the atmosphere. I called out to The Doctor when I saw a strawberry blonde girl in Los Angeles – she was killing off a large herd of them by herself – and he flew the TARDIS lower without it touching the ground for me to get to her before the toxins reached her. "Come with me!" I called to her. She looked up at me and grabbed my hand immediately, not even questioning what I was doing in a flying police box, allowing me to pull her into the TARDIS.

"Who are you?" she asked. "And why should I trust you?"

"Because we're saving the Earth," The Doctor replied as he flew the TARDIS higher, "and if you stayed on it, you'd be dead. Is it working again, Eve?"

"That it is!" I responded. "I'm Eve. This is The Doctor. We'll explain everything later."

"What's your name?" The Doctor asked her very kindly. The girl swallowed before she spoke.

"Kelsey." She spoke with hesitation. "I was a Runner in the Los Angeles area. Archer. I used to be a Journalist, but I had to leave my post and start running."

We stopped again in Florence, Italy. I was surprised to find that we had actually found an American exchange student from Brown University in Rhode Island fighting off the massive zombie crowd. He was reluctant to join us in the TARDIS, but Kelsey helped me coax him in with the help of another large group of zombies nearing him as he ran out of ammunition. His name was Harrison and he was a college junior and Gunner. He was an engineering major, so he was completely fascinated by the entire workings of the TARDIS.

Our final stop was in London. I made The Doctor stop for an incredibly handsome Sprinter, who we managed to keep a good pace with – he was incredibly fast – and turns out he was a former Medic. Similarly to Kelsey, he had to leave his position to try to survive when everybody in his area died or was infected by the bite. The moment he saw me reach out to him, his hand reached mine and I pulled him up with us. His name was Adam.

"Close the door, Eve!" The Doctor instructed. "Is that enough?"

"Should be," I nodded. "We've got four total now."

"We're going to have to wait a while before we go back to Earth," The Doctor informed us as he finished pumping out the toxins that would kill the zombies. "What do you say we do a bit of space travel, eh?" he grinned. The Doctor flipped a few switches and pressed a few buttons and even let me help him. Once we were all set, he rushed to the TARDIS doors and swung them open.

"Aren't we going to die?" Kelsey asked, shocked. "There's no oxygen!"

"We're protected by the TARDIS," The Doctor eased her mind. "Don't worry; it has its own protective bubble around it. Just don't wander out!"

"It's beautiful," I spoke in barely a whisper, captivated by what I was seeing. I couldn't wrap my brain around it; in front of me was the universe. Stars and planets and moons and nebulas and everything you could possibly imagine within an arm's reach of me. Adam stood behind me, looking past my shoulder – he was much taller than me – and Kelsey eventually joined me, standing right beside me. Harrison stood behind her, and we all just stared into the universe. I was in absolute awe, and I think it would be safe to say I spoke for the four of us. I couldn't tell how long we were out there for, but it was definitely for a long time. Adam and I had clicked immediately, and Kelsey and I discovered that we had ties to the same sorority; she would have been a freshman at college before the apocalypse started, and her mother was in the same sorority I was. It was a good building block for us to form a nice friendship. Harrison was quiet, but I saw him open up a bit to Kelsey during any downtime we had. The Doctor showed us other planets. He didn't have us stop, since he figured saving one world was enough for me right now, but he gave us a tour via TARDIS rather than by foot.

We eventually had to go back to Earth. Once it was safe to, The Doctor landed right outside of the Bass Pro Shop we first met at. We were in the middle of the street by the parking lot; the actual shop was a pile of ashes now. He stepped out of the TARDIS with us and we weren't sure exactly where to start in this New Earth. "Eve…" The Doctor sighed with a frown. I already knew what he was going to say. I could not cry; I was more in shock. Even though I knew that this was coming, I wasn't prepared for it at all. I didn't want to accept that it was just us.

"So we're the last four human beings on Earth?" Adam asked for me, taking a hold of my hand. I was glad that I had picked him from the crowd. His blue eyes held the same expression as mine, but there was more confidence in his voice.

"Yes," The Doctor pursed his lips. "I'm so sorry."

"So it's our job to repopulate the planet?" Kelsey understood. Harrison wasn't speaking; he looked terrified.

"That's why I picked you and two guys," I admitted. "I didn't want us to have to deal with inbreeding."

"A very smart move, too, Eve," The Doctor smiled. "I'm so proud of you. For everything."

"I couldn't have done it without you." My voice shook the more I spoke. "I'd be struggling in the woods or dead."

"You're okay now," The Doctor smiled at me. "Remember that, Eve. You're okay. And you would have been without me, too, I bet. You would have figured it out eventually. You're brilliant."

"Where are you off to now?" I asked.

"Oh, I dunno," The Doctor shrugged with a whimsical look of adventure on his face. "Wherever needs me, I guess. I'll be sure to visit, I promise I will. I might not have this body, but we'll meet again. Although, I can't promise when, I'm awful at keeping track of time…"

"One of the downsides to being a Time Lord, huh?" I smirked. The Doctor brought me hope as he laughed, pulling me into a hug. He held me there for a moment – we were going to miss each other, as we had become wonderful friends – and when he pulled away, all I could do was give him a salute through my tears. "Geronimo, Doctor," I smiled at him. He beamed and saluted back.

"Geronimo, Eve." With that, The Doctor – the man who saved my life, the man who saved the planet for no particular reason other than it was the right thing to do – stepped inside of his big blue police box and gave me one last look before closing the door. Part of me wanted to run up to that big blue police box and bang on the door until he let me in to escape the reality that I now had to face, but I was also content standing here holding Adam's hand as I watched that big blue police box fade out. As I wiped my tears, I could only smile; I knew that would not be the last time I saw The Doctor.


End file.
